Brainstorm Cafe

do i even want to think about what the selfie in the future will be? (c) mark somple 2018

I just found out an acquaintance of mine was writing a book. I had to laugh at the premise is an idea i have been pondering for about 15 years - can machine learning and advanced artificial intelligence teach machines that as a species man isn’t a threat to the planet and what is created doesn’t wipe us out. it is the current debate that has come to life as we get closer to the realities of quantum computing meeting artificial intelligence and robotics. I don’t think I will be walking the planet when this occurs due to my age, but it is possible I can be drooling on myself while a robot of sorts keeps me company and wipes the drool off my face.

it is pretty easy to come up with various scenarios for what is possible and how the world will look in the future. the one I see has a wide chasm between the haves and the have-nots on the planet, and each lives a very different life, where the creepy reality is that the systems are all controlled and most of the people live in a faux reality and believe they are living, when in fact, they are all kept in a sort of giant invisible cage. much like the wizard of Oz, there are a few people that actually have the power to control much of what goes on at a planetary scale.

the problem I have always had with that story and some of the creep factor with the future is that on much of the planet, man will not have a choice or the freedom. it is one of the things I do love about the united states in that if you have an idea, you can try. if you want to believe in god, you can. if you want to live a certain way, you can. for a simplistic construct, call these ideas freedoms, of which, you get to make a choice. right now on the planet, particularly in the USA and 1st world, I am seeing a cracking in the ground with choice and the abuse of it from the idea that a few folks are making up lots of rules for people to do, yet, they themselves aren’t doing them. even in the bible, that was a lesson about the legalism of a human with regard to getting out of the mind and into one’s heart – yet – that is one of the more amazing things about freedom, you get to choose.

it appears much of man’s history had been based on freedom to choose selfishly and with what is left over, the crumbs go to selflessness. one can argue this is part of the human condition, yet, I dare say we probably learn how to be greedy and selfish, or create pathways and structures where people will behave I a way very differently in the group versus alone. this is where I wonder if the future will be a giant surveillance society where the capabilities will be machines monitoring all the people with algorithms that are more like massive profiling tools bent on serving a fake construct or ethic of goodness to simply have control over a lot of people. the cool and creepy part is how humans will exist and think they are living in the systems.

I must have run through 12 or 15 different scenarios to end the story, yet, with advanced artificial intelligence, the easy solution has humans wiped out as a threat to the planet. what I would hope is humanity wises up before a tipping point of never returning is reached and we change the human condition ourselves, and are not forced to. while there will something called machine bias with all the robots, I worry more about the bias of what the machines were created by man, and the purpose, usually fear or security-based, will be a root issue. perhaps that is why I giggle that machine bias will be man’s one interesting hope to teach the robots that one doesn’t really need all that much, and happiness is far more valuable than living in fear and hate? the inherent weaknesses of the human condition might be changed for the planet and instead of trying to get off it, we begin to really take care of it, and each other.

pretty nice image, but no matter how I run the scenarios, I keep coming up that such a feat would be impossible if humans were given the choice to share, love and give versus taking, control and desire for themselves.

can one make a machine to prohibit and limit behaviors and/or eliminate anything that did not follow the rule to the t? sure.

would that actually change humanity? probably not. it would simply be a more efficient way of doing what we already are doing to each other – today.

that is the ramble. it is an interesting question, “can man change?” while it appears much of the planet doesn’t think it can or perhaps doesn’t want to put in the effort and work – I think humanity can change.

the downside is that it will take some really horrific action on the planet for humanity to ever bond together- it won’t be because of choice, but rather survival

given the choice of living versus surviving…I would prefer to really live and be alive, ideally in a place where fear has been supplanted by love.

care to join me for a coffee?

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